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"Paul"

I didn't know much about "Paul" going in to the screening but was prepared for it to be either stupidly dumb or hilarious. What it ended up being was a mix of the two, making for a decidedly average movie, but one that still provided enough laughs to be funny.

Graeme (Simon Pegg, "Star Trek") and Clive (Nick Frost, "Pirate Radio") are two British men who have come to the States for Comic-Con, and then plan to take a road trip to various U.S. sites where aliens have allegedly been spotted in the past, like Area 51. What they don't count on is running into Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen, "The Green Hornet"), an alien who is on the run from some people that want to dissect him. Graeme and Clive are a little scared of "Paul" at first, which is to be expected, but they soon find out they have a lot in common: Paul drinks coffee, his favorite candy is Reeses Pieces, and he even wears pants. Paul asks them to help him get to the place where he is supposed to meet his alien contacts - so they can "give him a ride home," so to speak - and so Graeme and Clive alter their road trip itinerary to try and get Paul to safety.

Paul is voiced by Seth Rogen and it was very easy to imagine him as a miniature alien version of himself. There are tons of geek and "fanboy" references sprinkled throughout the film, most of which probably went over my head, but one favorite was when Graeme is sketching a picture of Paul and he asks him, "Are you going to draw me like one of your French girls, Jack?" (referencing "Titanic," when Leo's character is sketching Kate's)
The humor throughout the film was a little crude but not horrible (the film is rated "R") and I found myself laughing at most of it. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are great as the two British geeks, as well as Kristen Wiig (TV's "Saturday Night Live") as a bible-thumping woman who sort-of gets kidnapped by them, and there are tons of cameos in the movie by A-listers, including Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, and Steven Spielberg.

Maybe see this movie. It's not a film I would see again but I enjoyed it; at the same time, however, I don't think it is everyone's "cup of tea." If you enjoy comedies and/or movies about aliens, though, you will get a kick out of Paul, an alien who is just as human as the rest of us.

So we've all been there ... that time when you're on an important phone call, and then the call drops. Or even when you need to use the internet on your smartphone, only to realize that you're at your data limit for the month.

I drive all over the metro Detroit area for movie screenings; because of this, most of the time I know where I'm going, but sometimes, I'm in an unfamiliar area or at an unfamiliar theater and I need GPS to know how to get there and back.

A few months ago, I was headed to the AMC Forum (Sterling Heights area) and I wanted to know the best way to get home from there. My phone kept stalling ... and stalling ... and then the Maps app crashed! Gah! I was extremely frustrated. I was finally able to re-start the phone and get safely home, but it TOOK. SO. LONG. Had the Maps app worked the fir…

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own. As long-time readers of this blog surely know, I travel quite a lot. A few years ago, I only took about 2-3 trips per year, not including trips in the state of Michigan (Grand Haven weekends, etc.), but this past year, I was fortunate in that I was able to travel very frequently.

I recently heard about a new travel site, DirectHotels.com, which is similar to Kayak.com, in that it searches all of the other travel sites (Orbitz, Expedia, etc.) to find the best deals for you. I gave it a bit of a test run to see if that is indeed true.

About the site:
DirectHotels.com is a new hotel comparison tool that challenges the big brands. Travelers can easily compare all the travel sites in one place to find the cheapest hotel. DirectHotels.com compares over 200 bookings sites, so users can be sure about its accuracy. Using DirectHotels.com means that you will never overpay.

I've written these past two years about Bookstock, a huge used book & media sale that takes place at Laurel Park Place, in Livonia, and it's returning again this year, from Sunday, 4/22 through Sunday, 4/29.Read more about the event over at my book blog! I was finally able to check it out last year, and they had a large mix of books and media (including DVDs, Blu-rays, and records).To learn more about Bookstock, click hereto visit my book blog, or visit their official site here.